A End-Week Mindshare on Democracy
Exploring religion and politics, European Christian nationalism, EU innovation, a vision for U.S. grand strategy, understanding online extremism, and another excellent source for all things democracy.
From Our This is Democracy Archive: Religion and Politics
What does it mean to have a democracy that is friendly and open to a true diversity of religious beliefs and experiences, especially in a seemingly inescapable continuum of polarization? As we enter the election season, it seems especially poignant to revisit the intricate web of religion and politics.
Originally recorded in 2019, this episode dives deep into religion's historical and contemporary influence on American politics. Dr. Ashlyn Hand (then a Ph.D. candidate), a thoughtful scholar and observer of religion’s role in public life, sits down with Jeremi and Zachary to explore the complex ways religious beliefs and practices have shaped political discourse, policy decisions, and the broader American political landscape. Hand opens the discussion by reminding listeners that religion has been a central force in American politics from the earliest colonial days to the present.
However, the ways in which religion is expressed in the public sphere, and the influence it has wielded, have undergone significant changes over time.
“If I look back on my own research [...], I think I’ve come up with […] overarching lessons that might have something to say for our current day, and our domestic context, because the connections between our foreign policy and our domestic policy in this area aren’t that separate.”
Hand then gives an insightful explanation of what is essentially an exercise in empathy, one that can bifurcate the polarized political sphere.
“First of all, is that we have to know the religious context in which we’re operating.”Hand emphasizes the changing global and domestic nature of religion: the ebbs and flows of the tide that are all happening at the same time.
“And so the first thing we need to do is, is really extend empathy, where we are, and to learn about other faiths to learn about what other belief systems hold most precious. Because I think it’s in learning about a society and and learning about the differences and diversities that are encompassed in the United States that we might actually find those areas that I mentioned to you, Zachary earlier, the find those areas of commonality.”
Zachary and Jeremi furthered this idea that the social structures of religion, both in the states and around the world, sometimes create bubbles, and that effectively hinders, if not stops altogether, productive conversation with those who believe differently than you. Zachary sees much hope in this realm, especially in the younger generations who are growing up in multi-religious households–their comfort with diversity creates spaces for learning and understanding. This episode puts together hard work and deep scholarship that reveal the breadth and depth of religion and politics, and what we can do about it moving forward. Take a listen or read the transcript of This is Democracy – Episode 40: Religion and Politics from May 2019.
To Read: Europe Christian nationalism through the eyes a Hapsburg archduke
While formally a review by Natasha Wheatley in the online magazine The Dial of a new biography of the leading matriarch of the Hapsburg dynasty, Maria Theresa (mother of Marie Antoinette), historian Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger’s profile of today’s leading Hapsburg heir, and the broader glimpse it offers on right-wing politics and populism, is an insightful read even for non-aficionados of central European history.
The biography is of Maria Theresa: The Habsburg Empress in Her Time, a towering figure of the 18th century who ruled the empire for four decades. But this particular review veers to more contemporary subjects as well, including Archduke Eduard Hapsburg, an author himself, and now a champion of Europe’s version of Christian nationalism, and the ambassador to the Vatican of Hungary’s autocratic leader Viktor Orban. Orban even wrote the forward to Eduard’s book, The Hapsburg Way, discussing how the Hungarians and Habsburgs are “going into battle together” once again – this time to fight for family values and Christian identity. His message taps into the “post-liberalism” of current dissent on both the left and the right.
It’s an unusual look at European politics by a magazine of ideas that prides itself on its diverse global voices.
To Read: Can Europe innovate? Yes, when the challenge is democracy
And while we’re on the topic of Europe, don’t miss this discussion of the continent’s new democratic innovation of “Peoples’ Assemblies.” The point of Nathan Gardels, editor-in-chief of another great online magazine, Noema, is that while Americans chide Europeans for lack of innovation in technology, it is in their means of democratic governance where we could pick up some new ideas.
We all know the standard rap on the European Union, the charge of a giant, faceless bureaucracy in Brussels mandating the fat content of yogurt made in Bratislava. But cognizant of the challenge, the EU has been sponsoring deliberative panels to address this “democratic deficit” in the past few years. Composed of randomly selected groups of 150 citizens, the panels have taken on such topics as“tackling hatred in society,” energy efficiency, and food waste. The sum of the sentiment is to be used in developing continent-wide policies in the coming years. Will it play in Peoria? Probably not. But a look at Gardel’s take is worth a few moments of time.
“While the world holds its breath over the momentous implications of the impending American election, the path being blazed (in Europe) may well prove more significant for the long-term fate of democracy, wherever it is practiced,” he writes. Perhaps.
To Listen: Global security must come from America-led democratic expansion
The US must adopt a grand strategy of democratic expansion, argues political scientist Kori Schake in this 15-minute survey of our political culture and its 250 year history. Only then, says the scholar at the American Enterprise Institute – who has served in both Democratic and Republican administrations – can global security be established. In this provocative podcast, hosted by the think tank Engelsberg Ideas, Schake offers up some intriguing insights. While we’ve generally been governed by mediocre presidents, we’ve repeatedly been extremely lucky, as with Abraham Lincoln. With a governmental system designed by founders who feared government, policy depends on elusive consensus, and always has. She takes apart the dichotomy that America is a“reluctant hegemon” but nonetheless an indispensably powerful one – a society where more young Americans would be willing to fight to defend Germany than probably are young Germans willing to do the same. She quotes British historian Bertha Ann Reuter: “Americans are a people too radical in religion and politics or both to live peaceably in their original home.”
As a society where values prevail in politics and political consensus-building, our foreign policy requires leaders to explain and advance foreign policy in moral terms. Making the world safe for democracy, it follows, has been, and will be the guiding light of foreign policy in the future. Interesting. Take a listen.
To Watch: A hate speech confessional and an initiative to restrain it
Worried about the role of social media in spreading hate speech, division, and political polarization? Then watch this brief discussion on the PBS Newshour between veteran journalist Judy Woodruff and Katie McHugh, a former Breitbart writer and editor.
A crisis of conscience prompted McHugh to flee the far-right media and she now works to counter its nurturing of extremism. She candidly shares her own retrospective horror at what she once believed and the kind of social media influencing she once practiced. She describes how far-right individuals on platforms like Twitter follow and boost each other, leading to a feedback loop that spreads increasingly extreme views. This "real-time radicalization" involves saying outlandish and racist things to push the conversation further right, she says. She acknowledges her own use of dehumanizing rhetoric, such as referring to immigrants and people of color as "alien" and dangerous, reflecting the far-right narrative that views these groups as existential threats. She describes her own assertion that Muslims were responsible for all terror attacks in the United Kingdom, a claim she now considers a positive turning in her rejection of extremist ideology. Chilling.
Woodruff also interviews others trying to restrain hate speech and enable more civil discourse online, including a project led by Chris Bail from Duke University's Polarization Lab. Among a host of initiatives are the lab’s use of bots on social media not to censor, but to encourage more civil speech. Fascinating.
Another newsletter to keep an eye on: DOMEOCRACY
Earlier this week, we shared our own conversation on the This is Democracy podcast with author and insider John A. Lawrence, once the top aide to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. If you liked what you heard, you may want to check out Lawrence’s own bloc DOMEOCRACY.
Now a professor at the University of California’s Washington Center, Lawrence has written recently on why third parties fail in America. He shared his insights on how Minnesota Governor Tim Walz’s experience as a member of Congress will serve him as a presidential running mate to VP Kamala Harris. He trains his sights on “Putin’s Lap Dogs in Congress.” And much, much more.